What mistakes do you wish you could have avoided?

[captmicha]

Looks like I'm finally getting around to seeing up my fish room now.

Please take pity on me and tell me what mistakes you learned better from.

I'm going to be doing air run filters. Individual heaters bc it's actually an alcove, not a closed room. And shop light type LEDs across my tanks. I like keeping my tanks planted.

I'll probably do mostly pool filter sand. But I'm also doing some mineralized top soil and my African ones will be a mix of substrates, including crushed coral.

I have the water heater room right next door. I don't know yet if I'm going to be drilling through the wall or not. It's not too big of a deal if not. I don't know if I want to drill all my tanks or not.

I have freestanding metal shelves, but I have to check how much they can hold.

Will have a few show tanks on wood or iron stands.

And a greenhouse in the back of the room. I'll probably do my partiality emersed plant culturing in it when it starts to get cold.

 

[chriscoli]

how are you set up for electrical? will you be able to reach the outlets that you need? I had some installed in the ceiling before we moved in since my fishroom is big and I knew that I'd have an "island" of tanks in the middle.

Also, if you are going to stack multiple tanks vertically, you need to decide how much room (or how little room) you need between them. I always forget to account for the width of the shelf (D'OH!). But, they are wide enough for me to get a dip-n-pour specimen cup into the tank. One of my mistakes was putting a gorgeous piece of driftwood in a tank and then putting the tank on the shelf. I can't get the driftwood out now that the tank is in place.

I'm sure I've messed up a thousand other things...

 

[dogofwar]

My main piece of advice is to make doing water changes and otherwise maintaining things as simple as possible.

And to let form follow function: if you're going to breed and raise fish, make sure you have plenty of (smaller) tanks to raise fry, for females to recover, etc. If you're going to have display tanks, design the room for that.

Matt

how are you set up for electrical? will you be able to reach the outlets that you need? I had some installed in the ceiling before we moved in since my fishroom is big and I knew that I'd have an "island" of tanks in the middle.

Also, if you are going to stack multiple tanks vertically, you need to decide how much room (or how little room) you need between them. I always forget to account for the width of the shelf (D'OH!). But, they are wide enough for me to get a dip-n-pour specimen cup into the tank. One of my mistakes was putting a gorgeous piece of driftwood in a tank and then putting the tank on the shelf. I can't get the driftwood out now that the tank is in place.

I'm sure I've messed up a thousand other things...